Land pressure, deforestation, degraded soils and climate change are creating food shortages in Rwanda, one of the most densely populated countries in Africa. With the population set to double by 2050 and with 80% of the population reliant on agriculture for their livelihood, there is a pressing need to adopt more sustainable agricultural techniques. Arup and MASS Design Group collaborated to design and construct the Rwanda Institute of Conservation Agriculture (RICA), an educational facility that embodies that mission in its form, materials and operation.

We worked with MASS Design Group to provide technical and engineering expertise in civil, structural, MEP, geotechnical, geological, and seismic design. We also seconded two engineers to MASS Design Group’s office in Kigali to lead the structural engineering and building services design, and to build the capacity of MASS’s Rwandan engineering team.

The completed campus consists of 20,350m2 of buildings over a 1,300-hectare site, with buildings containing academic spaces, housing for staff, students and livestock, with a solar array providing clean energy. The institute is a low carbon centre for learning that embodies its teaching principles, protecting soil and water, while balancing the needs of society and the environment. 

Developing a sustainable campus

The project was a chance to show real ambition and push sustainable design principles at every level. This included the use of low carbon natural materials, passive design, off-grid site wide infrastructure and landscape. The project makes a positive contribution to 15 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

  • Addressing food security: the institute will train the next generation improved agricultural techniques and ‘One Health’ principles. Recognising that the health of humans, animals and ecosystems are interconnected. Conservation agriculture embodies a set of crop and livestock production practices which maintain or improve the soil and water health.

  • Education and skills: the institute will provide full scholarships to 84 students a year, who will earn a BSc in Conservation Agriculture through an internationally recognised programme. It also includes an outreach facility which will provide training and support to the local community.

  • Creating employment: jobs created during construction with 90% of the 2,500 workforce employed from the local area and 96% from Rwanda.

  • Minimising embodied carbon: buildings are constructed from natural materials, stone, timber and earth block walls, 96% (by weight) of which are sourced within Rwanda and have on average 175kg/m2 embodied carbon (53% less than the global average for educational construction projects).

  • Minimised energy consumption: water storage and pumping systems are designed to reduce energy consumption. The buildings are configured to minimise energy consumption in operation by optimising passive cooling and ventilation, with most being naturally ventilated.

  • Renewable off grid power supply: a 1.5MW on site solar array can provide 100% of the site’s power demand

  • Renewable off grid water supply: the sites water infrastructure is also off grid with water sustainably extracted from the lake at a rate no greater than it will be replenished naturally.

  • Use of nature-based solutions: the site surface water drainage system employs sustainable drainage principles including swales and attenuation basins to maximise groundwater infiltration and minimise erosion and transfer of sediment to the lake.

  • Wastewater management: wastewater is managed on site and used for agricultural irrigation to further reduce freshwater abstraction.

The institute was conceived and funded by the Howard G Buffet Foundation, whose mission is to address food security for the world’s most impoverished and marginalized populations.

A group of people eating at the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture

The campus consists of buildings containing academic spaces, housing for staff, students and livestock, over a 1,300-hectare site

The Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture building

The buildings are constructed from natural materials, including stone, timber, and earth block walls, with 96% (by weight) sourced within Rwanda

All images © MASS/Iwan Baan

Partners & collaborators

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